Three Wishes Clark Would Take Back
by Psychi
Summary: Clark Kent makes three wishes. This is for Slodwick's A Picture is Worth 1000 Words Challenge: 3rd Time's a Charm. The picture's located at http:img.photobucket.comalbumsv233picfor1000160.jpg. Slash.


When Clark was ten years old, he first saw the ocean. The local radio station had held a contest for a free vacation and his mother had won it with a scarily vast knowledge of eighties movies. Since it was winter Jonathan was able to leave the farm under the care of a neighbor and the entire family left Kansas for the first and last time ever.

One night, when he was walking on the beach with his mother, he stumbled upon a group of three tiny starfish that had been trapped when the tide went out. She picked them up carefully and put them in his hand. He asked her if he could wish upon them like she had taught him to do on the stars above. She smiled gently down at Clark and told him that he could, but it would only work if the wishes were for other people. His mother was probably only trying to encourage generosity in her son, but as a little boy, he took it to heart. Clark brought them back to Smallville, gently wrapped them up and hid them to save for when he'd really need to make those wishes for someone.

The last week of his senior year, Clark found those three starfish. They were even smaller than he remembered, no bigger than an inch or two across.

He gave the first one to Lana, so that she would always remember their days together fondly.

He gave the second one to Chloe, so that she would move on from him.

He gave the third one to Lex and wished that the other man would only tell him the truth from that point on.

Chloe's was the first to work. She told him that afternoon that she had accepted a scholarship to NYU she had been wavering on and hoped that they could keep in touch when she moved. He could tell that she didn't really mean it the way she would have before the wish. The indifference in her eyes hurt him more than he thought it would have.

Lana's didn't quite work the way he wanted it to. He noticed that she started to follow him around more. Chloe later told him that Lana decided to decline a scholarship to an American University for arts in Paris the same afternoon that Chloe accepted hers.

Lana started wearing only pink again. She visited him in the barn for two nights in a row. Clark found a note on the third night for him to meet her on top of the windmill in Chandler's Field.

He fled to the Luthor castle. Clark could now ask Lex for advice since he would tell him the truth.

"Clark." Lex hadn't hidden his surprise to see him. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you." He replied. "I figured we could talk."

"Well, it's not like there's much else to do in this town."

Clark eyed his friend warily.

Lex's manner seemed entirely more hostile than he had ever seen it before as the other man walked across the room with his glass of scotch and sat down on the couch by the fire. "What do you want to talk about?"

Silence fell heavy in the room as Clark struggled for words to say in the face of such open unfriendliness, not having prepared himself for such a reaction out of Lex.

"Do you want a favor?" Lex spoke when he didn't. "What do you want?"

Clark suddenly remembered why he had come over. "Advice…I wanted to ask for your advice."

The other man let out a low chuckle. "Why would you want advice from me? You think I'm rich scum."

"I don't." Clark protested. "You're my friend."

Lex laughed some more. "Yes you do. You judge every move I make and never believe a word I say. But then I guess liars never do believe anyone else."

Clark didn't know how to respond to the accusation. His friend's bitter mirth felt like acid.

"Look, Clark." He stopped laughing. "You came here for advice. What do you need advice on?"

"I made a mistake. I shouldn't have come here."

"Probably." Lex nodded. "You know the way out."

"Do you hate me?" The words left Clark's mouth before he could stop them.

Lex thought about it for a moment while staring into his glass. "Sometimes I wish I did. You hurt me too easily."

He crossed the room and grabbed Lex, lifting him up off the couch. "So this is it? I hurt you and you want me out of your life?"

Lex's right hand came up to grab a hold of Clark's arm, steadying himself. His left hand settled on Clark's face, gently cradling it and wiping away a tear that had escaped.

"I don't want you out of my life." He confessed.

"Nor do I, Clark." Lex' thumb moved down his cheek to lightly ghost over Clark's lips before his friend leaned forward and kissed him.

He responded without a thought. Lips pressed on lips, soon parting to allow them to consume each other. He had drunk scotch before, but tasting it on Lex's made Clark feel instantly drunk. He only stopped when he felt tears run down his face which weren't his own.

"Lex…"

"I love you Clark, but you're just going to keep hurting me. If you care about me at all, you'll leave and never come back despite what I want." He pulled out of Clark's arms and away from him. "If you stay, you'll just open me up for more pain and I don't think I could take the inevitable betrayal from you."

"You love me?"

Lex ignored his question. "Please go."

"I'm sorry."

"It's too late."

Looking into the other man's eyes and seeing the raw ache he put there reflected back at him gave him the strength to turn around and walk away.

Clark vowed to stay away, but he couldn't say he'd never look back.

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**A/N:** I know that this story isn't coming up as 1000 words on FF, but according to my word processor, this is 1000 words long so I'm going to go with what I have here.  



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